


the smell of pine in winter time

by jadore_hale



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Tree, Crack-ish, Derek Has A Fear of Spiders, Domestic, Established Relationship, In His Defense It's A Pretty Big Spider, M/M, Phobias, Protective Stiles, Spiders, Werewolf Derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 09:39:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13164240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadore_hale/pseuds/jadore_hale
Summary: “I call bullshit,” Stiles announced then turned to Derek skeptically. “How canyoube afraid of spiders? You lived in your old burned down home. You had no roof! All kind of bugs must have been crawling on you when you were asleep!”“I bought expensive repellent to keep them away.”“But what about when you lived in the underground train car?”“Again, no spiders!”“But you’re a werewolf! All you do is run around in the woods! Basically, spider territory!”“Hey, do I question you about your irrational fear of yogurt?”------------Stiles had no idea Derek had any huge fears until an itsy bitsy spider crawled out from under their Christmas tree and Derek loses his shit.





	the smell of pine in winter time

**Author's Note:**

> For [The Original Sterek Secret Santa Exchange](http://stereksecretsanta.tumblr.com/) I always love participating in this event and the mod does such a fantastic job!

“It’s too tall!” 

“It’s not too tall!” 

“It’s gonna hit the ceiling!” 

“It’s not gonna hit the ceiling!” 

“Did we seriously need to have one this big!”

“Of course, we seriously needed to have one this big!” 

“Would you stop arguing with me like that!” 

“Stop arguing with you like what!” 

Always having to hide his immense satisfaction and borderline _glee_ at having successfully riled Derek up with his antics was nearly an impossible feat for Stiles. Still, he managed for one very selfish and very important reason. _Derek Hale was smoking hot when he was mad!_

Luckily, now that they were dating, Stiles got to see this angry side of Derek all the time, though he wasn’t quite sure what that said about the longevity of their relationship. To Stiles, Derek was the sexiest person to have ever walked the earth. _Hands-down._ But Angry Derek….with his scorching hot glare and that delicious vein on the side of his neck that strained as he turned a furious shade of red, his every muscle tense, even the ones in his eyebrows…well, that was all the Christmas gifts Stiles would ever need. 

“Please, for the life of me, just stop talking, I beg of you,” Derek pleaded, pressing his palms together in prayer. “I’ll get your tree up somehow. You just sit there, and look pretty, and shut up.” 

Stiles’ already wide grin grew wider. “You think I’m pretty?” 

“Of course.” Derek winked then switched his focus back to the tree. “I also think you’re annoying, ridiculous, deranged, obnoxious…” 

The list went on and on. Derek was probably dreaming about how good it would feel to put his hands around Stiles’ neck and just _wring_. Stiles kept bothering him nonetheless, barking out absurd orders as Derek struggled to put up their humongous Christmas tree that Stiles had begged him for. It was their first holiday together as a real couple and Derek had wanted to buy a stupid fake tree, one that would be too small and too easy to set up. Stiles, on the other hand, wanted a real tree, one that was big and fluffy and smelled like fresh pine. And though their relationship was fairly new—they’d only been together for a month—Stiles was discovering that Derek typically let him have his way. Probably knowing that giving into Stiles was well worth the sex in the end. 

“Whew,” Stiles puffed and wiped pretend sweat from his forehead as Derek finally got the tree on the stand. “Well, that was a lot of work!” 

“You. Did. Nothing.” Derek glared, biting out each word. 

Stiles scoffed. “I’m management. That’s like the most important job. Everyone knows the top’s where all the pressure’s at. Supervising is a lot more stressful than manual labor.” 

“I’ll show you manual labor,” Derek murmured, a suggestive glint in his eyes as he slid into Stiles’ personal space and pressed their bodies together. 

Stiles had all intention of rolling his eyes at Derek’s massive cheesiness but gasped instead when Derek’s hands went under his thighs to hoist him up into the air. Stiles wrapped his legs around Derek’s waist and clung on while Derek walked them towards the couch, nibbling on Stiles’ ear.

“Wait! We need to decorate the tree!” Stiles whined when Derek dropped them down onto the couch. 

“We can do it later,” Derek dismissed, running his teeth against Stiles’ jawline. 

“No, we can’t do it later! We have to do this now while the Christmas spirit is still alive.” 

“The Christmas spirit can wait an hour.” Derek kissed him then and Stiles forgot all about the tree and the arguing and got lost in the warmth and feel of his mouth. 

He remembered the disaster that surrounded their first kiss. Derek had a rough encounter with a witch and was cursed by a nasty spell that called for someone to have sex with him or he would die. 

Naturally, out of the pack, Stiles was the only suitable option to help Derek with that, and so they went a couple of rounds in bed but didn’t even kiss at all. As you can imagine, it was very awkward later realizing that they’d fucked for hours but hadn’t kissed. Things got even more awkward as they tried to push past it and pretend that the whole situation never happened. 

After a few weeks of unbearable awkwardness, they’d finally had enough and made the grownup decision to kiss to get it all over with. However, they hadn’t expected to never want to stop kissing and honestly haven’t ever since. 

Stiles whimpered when Derek’s lips pulled away from his then moaned when they continued kissing down his body. He felt a tug as Derek undid his pants and opened his eyes hungrily to watch when he spotted a sorry sight. 

He glanced to it and then back at Derek, torn. “Look at it. It looks so sad that it’s still naked.” 

“I’m sad that _we’re_ not naked,” Derek griped. 

“C’mon.” Stiles pushed Derek off after a long, bruising kiss and stood, buttoning his pants. “I’ll make it up to you later. I promise.” 

“You’re exhausting,” Derek sighed but got up anyway. 

With such a big tree, they would need a lot of manpower and a ton of decorations. Stiles had brought a bunch of boxes of extra decorations to the loft from his dad’s house, trying to save money, being a poor college student and all. But he wished that they would have invested in some new Christmas lights at least instead of trying to work with ones that were super old and tangled up. 

He’d made a big mistake in delegating the responsibility of untangling the lights to Derek. It was a huge job that required one to be patient, level-headed, gentle, and super careful; qualities that neither of them really possessed. He thought Derek would’ve done better with it though, because Derek was a werewolf. Honestly, he thought Derek was supposed to be good at everything because he was a werewolf. 

But when Derek started getting so frustrated that he was growling and popping wolfy claws, Stiles had to step in and take them from him before he ripped through the wiring. He gave Derek another task of going through the boxes and sorting the ornaments while Stiles dealt with the lights. That way everyone would be happy. Basically, what being in a management position was all about and why his job was _way_ more important. 

It took about thirty minutes and _a lot_ of cursing, but Stiles was actually able to get all the lights untangled and was working on putting them around the tree when he heard the sound of glass shattering from behind him. 

“Dude! What the fuck!” Stiles cried when he looked back and saw one of the glass ornaments in a pile on the ground. “I thought I told you to be careful!” 

He was waiting on Derek to say something, to apologize, or explain himself, or be his usual asshole self. But Derek was just standing there, completely silent, and staring at this one spot on the floor.

“Derek?” Stiles was less annoyed now and more concerned as he put down the lights and tried to figure out what was going on. 

“S-s-s-pider,” Derek stammered. 

“Uh where?” Stiles asked, frowning as he looked around and saw nothing. 

“Right there!” Derek pointed to the same spot he’d been staring at, eyes refusing to budge. 

Stiles moved a little closer and squinted. “I don’t see it.” 

“Are you blind?!” Derek snapped, finally looking up. “It’s right there. It’s huge! You can’t miss it!” He looked back over to the spot and paled. “Oh god... it moved!” 

“Where?” Stiles searched the floor again but again found nothing. 

“There!” Derek swung around, pointing somewhere else. “Fuck now it’s over there! It’s right fucking there, Stiles!” 

“Seriously?” Stiles furrowed his brows. He was honestly scratching his head at this. “This has got to be some sort of act.” 

“It’s not,” Derek said gravely. “Fuck, it must have come from the tree.” 

Stiles rolled his eyes; he should’ve known where this was going. Of course, Derek just wanted an excuse to villainize the perfection that was his real tree. But that still didn’t explain the sheer terror he was seeing on Derek’s face. Or the high-pitch scream Derek let out when whatever spider he was seeing moved again. Or even his running away and jumping onto the couch for safety. 

“Oh, I see it now!” Stiles shouted, catching a glimpse of something brown and furry crawling along the floor. 

It was definitely a large spider, for sure. One could probably keep it as a pet. But it didn’t look poisonous or particularly harmful in any way to Stiles, at least. Then again, he was no expert. And while the spider was definitely big, they as humans were a lot bigger. So, Stiles still wasn’t understanding why Derek was so scared. 

“Why are you standing on the couch?” Stiles asked, watching Derek balance himself on one of the couch’s arms.

“Did you not see the size of that thing!” Derek asked incredulously. “It’s gigantic!” 

“Yeah, it is pretty big but you’re a werewolf...” Stiles said slowly in case Derek had forgotten. 

“Fuck! It’s on my furniture! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! _Fuck!_ ” 

“Would you calm down!” Stiles urged, watching as the spider crawled its way onto the TV stand. “It’s not anywhere near you!” 

But Derek did not heed any of Stiles’ advice. In fact, Stiles could see that Derek was done hearing seasonable reasoning completely. He just kept shrieking his head off as the spider crawled over his big screen TV then onto the wall where it remained stationary for a couple of minutes. 

“I call bullshit,” Stiles announced then turned to Derek skeptically. “How can _you_ be afraid of spiders? You lived in your old burned down home. You had no roof! All kind of bugs must have been crawling on you when you were asleep!” 

“I bought expensive repellent to keep them away.” 

“But what about when you lived in the underground train car?” 

“Again, no spiders!” 

“But you’re a werewolf! All you do is run around in the woods! Basically spider territory!” 

“Hey, do I question you about your irrational fear of yogurt?” 

Stiles’ hand flew to his heart in utter betrayal. He couldn’t believe that Derek had the audacity to throw that in his face. “That is a very real and rational fear! Not only does it taste disgusting, but it’s alive, and I can hear the screams of young innocent bacteria cultures crying out with every spoonful!” 

“Stiles…” Derek said, his breathing laboring in a way Stiles was very familiar with, like he was on the verge of a major panic attack. “Stiles, for once, can you just stop talking and get rid of it for me, please. I need you here.” 

“Oh,” Stiles said, now that he was grasping the severity of the situation. “Okay, let me just get a—” 

He sprinted to the kitchens and rummaged through the cabinets for something to trap the spider in. He was hoping that this itsy bitsy spider would be cooperative and would just get into whatever container Stiles found without his having to chase it. He wasn’t going to be cruel. He just wanted to catch this spider, take it outside, and order it an Uber ride home. But if things didn’t go as planned, he wouldn’t think twice about giving this spider _The Stomp_. It had scared the living shit out of his wolfy boyfriend. This was personal now. 

“AHA!” Stiles exclaimed and held up a plastic lunch container. 

“Not my tupperware!” Derek called out. 

“Why not?” 

“Because that fucking spider doesn’t pay rent and I need them for meal prep!” 

“You can just wash it and use it again,” Stiles tried. 

“You think I’m gonna eat out of something a fucking spider’s been in? That’s disgusting!” Derek shouted hysterically. 

Stiles could’ve said that there was a chance it was recycled plastic from a dump where spiders had already crawled all over it. But he didn’t because he’d already acted like such a shit boyfriend tonight by not responding to Derek in crisis fast enough. But he kept his mouth shut and put the tupperware back, finding a plastic butter container that nobody would miss. 

“Okay,” he said, walking over to Derek, “I’m gonna lure the spider onto the floor. Don’t faint and don’t freak out.” 

Fear never made anyone a good listener. Stiles knew he was asking too much in telling Derek not to freak out, but he was hoping Derek could attempt to keep it to a minor one. He worked as fast as he could to get the spider in the container. Derek was counting on him and Stiles couldn’t let him down. He missed catching the spider once, twice, but on the third try, he was victorious. He got the spider firmly under the container on the floor, but must not have realized how much energy he’d been exerting because he was panting by the end of it. 

“You ever see that video where the guy catches the spider under a container and then it explodes and has like a million babies?” Stiles asked Derek between breaths. “Right, you probably don’t want to hear about that right now.” 

Derek got down from standing on the couch and sank into a seat, covering his face with his hands. Stiles desperately wanted to go over there and comfort him but was worried he wouldn’t be welcome. He took the spider downstairs and released it back into the wild, telling the little fucker never to come again. He also told it to tell its friends never to bother his boyfriend either, because Stiles wouldn’t be so nice the next time. 

When he got back upstairs, he was fully expecting for Derek to want some space between them. Stiles had acted like a total jerk and Derek had a right to be pissed. Stiles was pissed with himself too. He’d never wanted to fuck up this bad so early in the relationship on something so important. He enjoyed making Derek angry but never like this. 

However, he was pleasantly surprised—more like ecstatic, really— when he opened the front door to the loft and saw Derek still sitting on the couch but holding his arms out for Stiles to come sit on his lap.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you were scared,” was the first thing Stiles made sure to say, that and kissing every inch of Derek’s face. “That was a dick move, and I promise you, I won’t leave you hanging like that ever again.” 

“It’s fine,” Derek chuckled, blushing a little in embarrassment. “You didn’t know.” 

“I should always believe you,” Stiles said then smiled, shaking his head. “But seriously, who would’ve ever thought that your biggest fear would be spiders.” 

Derek snorted. “That’s hardly my biggest fear. Not by any means.” 

Stiles slapped a hand over his mouth that he’d just put his giant foot in. Sometimes he was an idiot and forgot that Derek had a terrible past and made such insensitive comments when he should know better. Of course, spiders weren’t Derek’s biggest fear. The guy had lost his entire family in a _fire_. 

Derek seemed to sense Stiles’ inner turmoil and tried to make him feel like a less horrible person by saying, “You know, my biggest fear now is telling someone I love them and them not saying it back.” 

“No way! That’s a big fear for me too!” Stiles shared. “Like how awkward must that be. Pouring your heart out to someone and them just not saying anything back. The only thing you can really do after that is crawl into a hole and live out the rest of your days as a crazed mole-person.” 

It was quiet then. Too quiet. And while this holiday season was known for its “silent nights” Stiles sensed something was amiss here. 

“Um, Derek... are you trying to... imply... something?” 

“I figured now would be a good time as any after you just saved my life.” 

Stiles cackled. “That wasn’t saving your life, dude. I’ve _actually_ saved your life. So many times in fact. You’ve literally been bleeding to death in my car. This spider incident _does not_ compare.” 

“It was a big deal for me. There’s no one I trust more than you. You know that right Stiles,” Derek told him.

Stiles was so touched he couldn’t speak. Honored even. Stiles knew it was early. Some would say _too_ early. After all, it had only been a month. But, they’d known each other a long time and have been through so much together. And Stiles wanted to say it. He wanted to say it so Derek would know he’d do everything he could not to let any of his fears come true. So, he did.

“I love you too,” Stiles said and kissed him, feeling Derek’s happy smile ghost against his lips.

“I didn’t even say anything yet,” Derek sputtered, wide-eyed. 

“You don’t have to. I already know.” 

They kissed again, not coming up for air for a while. Stiles was perfectly content with staying there all night, but then Derek messed it up by pulling away.

“Come on, let’s decorate your precious Christmas tree,” he sighed, moving Stiles off of him and kissing his brow. 

“No,” Stiles whined, pulling Derek’s mouth back to his. “The Christmas spirit can wait an hour.” 

“Next year fake tree and no spiders,” Derek said sternly.

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.” Stiles rolled his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> subscribe to my [ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/jadore_hale/profile) for more of my fics! follow my [tumblr](http://jadorehale.tumblr.com/) or my [twitter](http://twitter.com/jadore_hale/) for explicit post about porn and pizza. (this is totally false advertising)


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